


Valiant

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 21:44:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8302243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Fic version of the Valiant quests, with a few things changed.





	

Louisa didn’t know what she’d expected when she rode into Marley’s yard, but it certainly wasn’t this skittish horse who looked about to bolt at the sight of the Appaloosa mare she rode.

“Who’s this?” Louisa asked Marley, leaving Supernova with the other horses for sale and walking over. The horse looked calmer now, though he still shied away at her approach. Marley put a gentle hand on the horse’s muzzle and made soothing sounds at the poor creature.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, Butterfly,” Marley cooed gently. The horse still shivered, but he stayed put. Marley only turned to Louisa once the horse was calm. “Hi, Louisa,” he spoke softly. “This here is Butterfly, the Baroness’ horse. She sent him to me to train him again after he got an injury.”

“That’s Butterfly?” asked Louisa, dumbfounded. She’d expected a majestic creature with a sore back leg, but this horse was, quite frankly, a nervous wreck.

“Yes, he’s just a little shy,” said Marley. “Maybe the accident hurt more than his leg, I don’t know. Come up and say hello to him.”

“Hello, Butterfly,” said Louisa, holding her hand out for the frightened horse to sniff. She was a little frightened at being this close to such a frightened horse, but Butterfly seemed to calm down once he’d decided that she wasn’t a threat.

“Maybe we should jump into training,” said Marley. Louisa wasn’t sure that it was the best thing for an injured horse to be training in jumping, but Marley was a horse trainer so he’d probably know best. Still, she wasn’t surprised at all when Butterfly suddenly took fright of one of the jumps.

“Maybe his leg hurts him too much to jump,” said Louisa after inspecting the track and finding that it was as harmless as it could get.

“You’re right, maybe I started him on something too tough,” said Marley. “Have a go at the barrel race.”

But, just like before, Butterfly took fright of the first obstacle. The barrel toppled over as his hooves collided with it, and then he was off across the fields.

“Oh no, what am I going to tell the Baroness?” Marley lamented, watching the horse run around the fields.

“I’ll get him,” said Louisa, climbing back into her saddle and racing off after the spooked horse.

Butterfly stopped running when Louisa finally caught up to him and gave him a comforting pet. It helped that Nova talked to him in the soft nickers of the horse language.

“He’s ready to go home now but he’s not Butterfly,” said Nova. Louisa frowned thoughtfully and rode back with the horse trotting alongside Nova.

“I think I should check Butterfly’s leg,” said Louisa once she’d returned to Marley. She dismounted, leaving Nova in front of the mystery horse to talk to him.

Just as she’d expected, the horse’s back legs felt healthy (even if he did tremble when Louisa got close to his hindquarters. Nova kept him calm, though).

“He doesn’t have an injury,” said Louisa. “And these markings on him don’t feel like fur.” She touched them, and some of them flaked off. Paint? And probably not paint safe for horses, either…

“But if that’s not Butterfly, then who is it?” asked Marley. “Have I lost the Baroness’ horse?”

“Well, have you taken your eyes off him since he got here?” asked Louisa.

“No,” said Marley. “He only got here this morning, and he’s been a nervous wreck that whole time.”

“Then it’s not your fault,” said Louisa. “Here, I’ll groom him, he might feel better then.”

Upon grooming the horse, the painted-on markings flaked away entirely, and he seemed calmer still at all the pampering.

“We should put some posters up,” said Marley. “I took some photos of him earlier, you just have to write out the posters and I’ll put the photos on them.”

Louisa put the posters up in Silverglade Village, then returned to Marley.

“We can’t keep calling him Butterfly,” said Marley. “What should we call him?” Nova silently told Louisa the horse’s real name.

“Valiant,” said Louisa. The horse pricked his ears up, looking at her.

“He seems to like that,” said Marley. “Hello there, Valiant. Sorry I’ve been calling you Butterfly this whole time.” He petted Valiant between the ears, the horse closing his eyes peacefully. “Louisa, I accidentally upended a crate of barrels earlier over behind that house. Can you go get some for me? I have an idea.”

With the apples, Louisa convinced Valiant to run first the jump race and then the barrel race.

“There we go, he just needed a little positive encouragement,” said Marley. “Now, for being so good, he can have three more apples. You can keep some too, he’ll get a belly ache and make all the other horses jealous if he gets too many.” Louisa fed Valiant the apples, laughing as he searched her for more.

That night, Louisa had trouble falling asleep while thinking about Valiant. But she eventually did, though she woke early the next morning to visit him again. Marley immediately sent her to the village to ask about Valiant, but nobody knew the horse. One person, however, pointed her to Steve.

“I know this horse,” said Steve. “I saw him once. Poor creature. His owner is a cruel man that you’d do well to stay away from, Louisa.”

“Well, Marley’s got him now,” said Louisa.

“Oh, good,” said Steve. “Marley’s a good fellow, he’ll look after the poor thing.”

“Steve knows who the horse is,” said Louisa. “Or who he belonged to, at any rate. It was this guy called Mr Anwir, and he abused Valiant.” Marley swore quietly, though the word still frightened Valiant.

“Horse abusers,” Marley muttered darkly. “Who could hurt a poor creature like that? But I’ll deal with him later, though I hope to never come face to face with the man. I might just kill him. Right now, I have to go see the Baroness. If this horse came from Anwir, then…”

The two of them raced to the winery, Marley on Valiant, and soon everything descended into chaos.

Louisa chased after Valiant again, unsure where he was leading her. When she found Butterfly in the tiny paddock, she was relieved to find that the horse was in a good condition. She opened the gate and Butterfly trotted out, quickly nuzzling Valiant and whickering softly to him. If the situation wasn’t so dire, Louisa would’ve cooed in delight. She did smile, though, before racing back up to the winery to tell Marley the news. She couldn’t face Mr Anwir herself, not after learning what he’d done to Valiant. The horse had been terrified of the man, bolting away so fast that he’d clipped the fence and almost fallen. His knees still bled, though the horse didn’t appear to feel any pain.

Louisa was only at the winery for a few seconds before she had to race after a car. It amazed her that Anwir’s tiny car could navigate the grape fields so well, but she only thought about that for a second. And just as the car was getting away from her…

Valiant galloped down onto the road, stopping in front of the car and rearing up in front of it. To Louisa’s relief, the car merely veered off the road and careered into a tree. She couldn’t find it in her to feel sorry for the men within the car, instead going to Valiant first.

“Are you alright?” Louisa asked, petting the horse’s nose. He was trembling, sides heaving, but other than his knees, he looked fine. Just frightened. But, despite his fear, Valiant followed Louisa over to the site of the accident where the men were yelling.

“Stupid horse crashed my car!” Anwir yelled, waving his fist at Valiant. “And you, you stupid little brat!” He gestured to Louisa, who flinched. “This is all your fault! Carl, deal with her.”

Louisa didn’t even see Carl’s fist, but she felt it when she was on the ground. She heard a horse’s hooves galloping away across the grass, but she couldn’t see much with her glasses missing. Her head hurt, and she trembled. A dun-coloured something nudged her glasses towards her, and Louisa put them back on. At least they weren’t broken. Valiant was there, rearing at Carl, and then the man was on the ground after one swift blow of the horse’s hooves.

“You really are valiant,” said Louisa, getting to her feet and leaning on the horse. Valiant turned his head around, looking at her with care in his eyes. Louisa petted his nose and then hugged his neck, crying into his soft fur.

“Louisa!” Louisa looked up when her name was called, aware that she’d been standing here crying and hugging Valiant for some time now. Marley and Carney stood on the road, finally united by something far more important than petty brotherly squabbles.

“Are you okay?” asked Marley. “We saw you race after the car, and then Valiant just took off.”

“Anwir disappeared,” said Carney, clenching his fists. “But we can at least deal with that.” He nodded his head towards the sprawled form of Carl on the ground, though Louisa refused to look at him. She still couldn’t speak, but she gave a tiny shake of her head. No, she definitely wasn’t okay. Her head hurt, and her wrist was also hurting. Her ankles hurt slightly too. Carl must have dragged her out of the saddle so he could knock her out.

“It’s okay,” said Marley, putting his arm around her. “Let’s just go back to the winery and tell the Baroness what happened. She’ll need to tell the police.” Louisa sniffled and looked at Valiant, silently asking if she could mount him. He stood still while she did, Marley helping her onto the horse’s back.

Somehow, Louisa managed to tell the Baroness everything that had happened. She’d calmed down on the ride back to the manor, and the nice purple dress that she got for all that she’d done helped a lot.

“Hmm, a dress doesn’t seem like adequate compensation,” said the Baroness. “You seem to have bonded with that horse, and he doesn’t belong to anyone. He also can’t stay at Marley’s, there are just too many people coming and going there every day. Would you like to keep him?”

“Yes,” said Louisa, smiling down at Valiant’s neck. Supernova hadn’t been found yet, and Louisa couldn’t talk to her horses unless she could see them. She was actually a little angry at the mare for abandoning her when she’d been hurt. Sure, she might’ve been spooked, but she should have stayed anyway. Though, if Valiant was hers, she still couldn’t speak to him. And that was strange, because she could talk to most of the other horses and animals on the island.

Louisa returned home later that evening, still riding Valiant. She’d bought him some tack from the winery, and the scent of the grapes was very nice. Her new dress that was in her bag also smelled faintly of grapes. When she saw Supernova standing in the stable, though, she frowned.

 _“Where were you?”_ asked Louisa, speaking mentally so as not to frighten Valiant. _“Did you seriously abandon me when I fell?”_

 _“No,”_ Nova replied, also in her mind. _“I went after Anwir. He took off after you fell, but I couldn’t catch up to him. He got on a boat on the river and I couldn’t follow.”_

 _“You could’ve told me,”_ said Louisa, letting Nova know how upset she felt.

 _“I couldn’t reach you,_ ” said Nova.

“Well, I can’t reach him, either,” said Louisa, nodding towards Valiant. She dismounted and untacked him, letting him choose which stall he wanted.

“Yes, I know,” said Nova. “I can only speak to him like all horses can speak to each other.”

“Do you know why?” asked Louisa.

“His spirit is broken,” said Goldmist. “No, that’s not the right word. His soul. He will never have a soul connection with you like we do. He has been too badly damaged.”

“Poor guy,” said Louisa, petting Valiant’s mane. “I probably can’t do much with him, either. Unless I get some help.”

“We can translate for you,” said Nova.

“I don’t think I’m ready to learn what happened,” said Louisa. “Not just yet.” The wound was, literally, still too fresh. “I think I’m going to put some ice on my head and lie down for a while.”

“Don’t go to sleep,” said Goldie. “You might be concussed.” Louisa groaned and touched her tender skull. At least he hadn’t hit her nose or eyes. Or mouth. Though she knew that it would’ve been much worse if Valiant hadn’t been there. She gave him one last pat before she left the stables and headed for home. Valiant would be safe here, and happy. He could finally recover.


End file.
